David H Fears Books in Order

Bored with insurance work and haunted by his father's death, Mike takes a tailing job that blows up when the woman he's watching kills a man. His bad choice to help her hide the body starts a mob-linked nightmare.

This large collection brings together 44 stories, many first published under the name D.H. Henry. It is the broadest sampler of Fears's shorter work, from mystery to more reflective pieces.

Julia Gateswood hires Mike to find her missing sister, but the case quickly tangles politics, mob ties, and a headless corpse. Mike and Rick chase the truth through 1962 Chicago while Mike tries not to fall for the client.

An anonymous note and a rare banknote push Mike into a kidnapping case with roots in World War I and old stolen gold. Chicago politics, racial tension, and urban renewal fires make the search even uglier.

When Mike rescues a bound woman from a burning building, he stumbles into a brutal ring built on prostitution and murder. The case turns personal when Molly is taken, sending Mike and Rick all the way to New Orleans.

An eccentric veteran asks Mike for help after his wife is murdered and he is being framed. The trail leads through Portland corruption, racketeers, and a vice world where even the cops can't be trusted.

After Mike is drugged and a file is stolen from his office, he follows the theft into a triple murder and an old diamond case. The trail leads to a gem company with global connections and a dangerous blonde client.

Five adult stories gathered in one volume, with desire and risky choices at the center. It is a slimmer collection than the larger anthologies and leans more openly into erotic themes.

A Vietnam veteran's return sets the emotional stakes in this short piece. Fears uses mail, memory, and homecoming to explore how hard it can be to come back for good.

Family duty drives this standalone story, where loyalty becomes both comfort and trap. It is a close look at the weight one sibling can carry for another.

A tense short story about marriage, desire, and the emotional cost of trying to rewrite the rules. Fears keeps the focus on uneasy bargains rather than easy scandal.

A 75-year-old man tries to help desperate Oklahoma farmers by following the legend of Pretty Boy Floyd, their folk hero outlaw. It is a short, wistful piece about memory, hardship, and one last gamble.

A compact story built around chess, strategy, and the price of one calculated move. What begins like a contest turns into something more personal and more dangerous.

A collection that gathers shorter fiction across different moods and genres. The title story sets the tone for tales interested in secrecy, regret, and the odd turns ordinary lives can take.

A varied story collection that hints at Fears's taste for the strange as well as the grounded. The title piece gives the book a slightly more mythic, fantastical edge.

Cryptic letters set this short mystery in motion and keep the tension rising. It is a lean setup built on curiosity, hidden meaning, and the trouble messages can carry.

A brief suspense story about evidence, accusation, and a guilt that refuses to stay buried. Fears plays the title idea as both clue and burden.

This short piece turns on apprenticeship, ambition, and the uneasy bond between teacher and learner. Fears keeps the pressure on character as much as plot.

A short story about private thoughts that refuse to stay harmless. The tension comes from the gap between what a character feels, what they admit, and what follows.

A classroom visit becomes the setup for a short story about observation, distance, and the things people reveal when they think they are only being watched.

After a shooting in Portland, Mike digs into two murders that connect to campus radicals and anti-war unrest. The deeper he goes, the clearer it becomes that someone is planning something deadly during the Rose Festival.

A model's murder and a vanished porn film send Mike from Portland to Las Vegas in search of answers. With mob ties, Howard Hughes looming in the background, and danger at every turn, the case gets darker fast.

This is one of Fears's more reflective titles, pairing a child's vantage point with longing and wonder. The story looks upward, but it keeps its feet in ordinary life.

A cool, hard-to-read woman stands at the center of this short story, and that mystery drives everything around her. The tone is tense, intimate, and edged with danger.

Grief and haunting meet in this compact supernatural-leaning tale. Whether the ghost is real or not, Joanna's presence refuses to let the past stay quiet.

When an orphaned boy's dog dies after eating poison, he turns to prayer and belief with all the force he has. It is a small, sad, hopeful story about grief and faith.

More atmospheric than loud, this short piece works with memory, rhythm, and the pull of landscape. It is a quieter title that hints at Fears's broader range beyond straight mystery.

A game becomes a test of nerve and character in this short suspense piece. Fears is more interested in the damage people do to each other than in the rules themselves.

This shorter Quentin tale leans into temptation, divided loyalties, and the danger of wanting the wrong thing. It works as a sharp side glance at the emotional pressures around Quentin.

An apartment, a woman, and a question mark are enough to power this compact mystery. Fears builds interest through proximity, suspicion, and what neighbors think they know.

A search for treasure gives this standalone story its forward pull. Expect mountain atmosphere, old hopes, and the chance that what is hidden may cost more than it is worth.

A tree house becomes the center of this quiet, uneasy short story. Fears uses the childhood setting to bring out secrecy, longing, and the fragile line between safety and escape.

A deceptively simple question opens this short piece into a story about place, frustration, and competing hopes for a better life. It has the feel of a family argument with deeper roots.

A missing-person case drops Mike into Albina, where corrupt bar owners, boycotts, and racial tension are already simmering. As violence climbs, Mike has to find the power behind the threats before he is framed for murder.

On the day Mike and Molly marry, a stray bullet leaves Molly in a coma and Mike half broken. A routine fraud case then pulls him into drug cartels, missing women, and a hard test of loyalty.

After witnessing a bank robbery, Mike is hired by a union boss to find the killer of his granddaughter. Every clue points deeper into labor war politics, seduction, and a trap that could ship Mike out of the country.

A practical craft guide for writers who want to revise more clearly and more confidently. Fears focuses on sharpening story, fixing weak spots, and turning a draft into something closer to finished.

Mike walks into his dark office and finds a dead woman posed like a movie star, with his business card hidden on her body. The murder leads to smut films, look-alikes, and a nasty trail running from Portland to Tijuana.

Trying to quit detective work, Mike buys a house to renovate and finds a corpse sealed inside the wall. Soon he is chasing a murder case tangled up with a parachute, an FBI cover-up, and the long shadow of D.B. Cooper.

A search for a stolen inheritance turns ugly when Mike's client is killed the next day. Chasing her clues sends him after a carnival con man, counterfeit money, and a finale staged over an alligator tank.

A missing man with links to the Patty Hearst case drags Mike into radical politics and dangerous appetites. Following the trail from Portland to Berkeley means murder, FBI pressure, and trouble on every side.

When a deadly fire hits Mike's neighborhood, a psychiatrist hires him to find the arsonist. The trail runs from Portland fires to an old bank robber, hidden loot, and a man rumored to have escaped Alcatraz.

Mike follows a beautiful stranger and stumbles into a hunt for a Hawaiian royal relic said to grant long life. After a friend is murdered, the case pulls him from Portland to Hawaii and into gang traps.

A bounced check sends Mike to a client's house, where he finds a triple murder and too many loose ends. The trail leads to Southern Oregon, missing Romanov jewels, and a case that keeps turning stranger.

A woman tied to Mike's first big case returns looking like a ghost from the past. Fresh murders, missing diamonds, and a brutal chase into British Columbia pull Mike, Rick, and Molly into one last dangerous tangle.

While looking into two missing women near Crescent City, Mike uncovers a remote lodge, coded shoreline signals, and a larger criminal scheme. The case mixes drug smuggling, strange locals, and a raid Mike is told not to join.

After Pearl Harbor, shipyard worker Quentin Haggerty agrees to look into a stolen heirloom for Mattie, the assistant he can't stop thinking about. The search leads to murder, sabotage, and a choice between steady love and dangerous temptation.

After losing Mattie, Quentin Haggerty drives east through 1945 Oregon looking for numbness, not purpose. A deputy's badge, a sudden promotion, and the town's first murder in decades force him to rebuild while solving crimes.

Now chief in Nyssa, Quentin faces a serial arsonist, two murders, and the aftershocks of a rape case buried for 22 years. The deeper he digs, the more old jealousy, old lust, and old injustice push back.